WordPress
WordPress is one of the most well-known and popular content management system (CMS) solutions available. It is built on PHP and MySQL and has thousands of templates and plug-ins available to extend its functionality.
We’ve created this site to provide information to help get your team off to a quicker start during dsmHack. Here you will find suggestions on various technology stacks that you can consider when building solutions for your nonprofit and some recommended best practices.
The success of your project largely depends on understanding your nonprofit’s true problem. Before you crack open your IDE and dive into the code, take some time to glean important insights up front, so that you can be more efficient with your time during the hack. Here are some tips for interviewing your nonprofit, forming a problem statement, mapping their story, and prioritizing work.
Your team is welcome to choose any technology that you feel is best to help your nonprofit so please don’t feel you have to limit your team to the content of this site. Just make sure to consider the following when choosing a solution:
Many of us work for business that are able to spend a lot of money on technology solutions. The same is not usually true for nonprofit organizations. Make sure you understand how much your nonprofit can afford and choose a solution that will stay within their budget.
Once your nonprofit leaves dsmHack they will likely be on their own to support and maintain the solution you build for them. Many of our nonprofits do not have much experience with information security so making sure that you deliver them a solution that is secure and will stay secure for months and years after dsmHack is very important.
Your team likely consists of some very talented technology professionals who are capable of building some impressive custom solutions. However, your nonprofits are not technology professionals. They are going to be willing to learn a bit but definitely don’t have time / desire to become experts in software engineering. Make sure your solution fits their knowledge level and remember, part of your job at dsmHack is to train them.
I’m sure you all have big ideas and we all appreciate your enthusiasm. Just remember that at dsmHack time is not on your side. You only have 48 hours (less if you manage to get some sleep) to design, implement, and test your solution as well as create documentation and train your nonprofit on how to use it. So just make sure whatever you choose is doable in that small time window.
WordPress is one of the most well-known and popular content management system (CMS) solutions available. It is built on PHP and MySQL and has thousands of templates and plug-ins available to extend its functionality.
Fast and secure sites and apps delivered by pre-rendering files and serving them directly from a CDN, removing the requirement to manage or run web servers.
There are several cloud based providers that can be used for building websites and store fronts. These solutions provide the simplest deployment and are generally more secure than self-hosted CMS solutions due to the cloud based provider handling most of the security and upgrades.
CRM systems compile data from a range of different communication channels, including a organizations’s website, telephone, email, live chat, marketing materials, and social media. They allow organizations to learn more about their target audiences and how to best cater for their needs.